To What Extent Can the Dissolution of the Monasteries Be Considered a Landmark?

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The Dissolution of the Monasteries was an administrative and legal process between 1536 and 1541. This process entailed King Henry VIII to disbanded monasteries and nunneries throughout England and Wales. Through this he seized their income and disposed of their assets. Henry VIII was given the authority to do this in England and Wales by the Act of Supremacy, a piece of legislature passed by Parliament in 1534. This piece of legislation would later give him the power to over through Catholicism and would which later make him ‘Supreme Head’ of the Church in England. The Dissolution of the Monasteries still, to this day, represents the largest legal transfer of land, property and assets in English history, since the Norman Conquest in 1066. But to what extent can the Dissolution of the Monasteries be considered a landmark? The Dissolution of the Monasteries is down to two occurrences, public and private intensions. Within the public intensions the king wanted to bring the clergymen into the sphere of his subjects. Clergymen of England were under the influence of the Pope, and saw the king as a second leadership figure. The Monasteries were also an outdated system that needed to be changed, for the better according to Henry VIII. The Dissolution would also show if the monasteries were suitable to serve as hospitals and as educational centres for the people of England. However, Henry and Cromwell had their own private intensions to dissolve the monasteries. The ability to review the church would find or fabricate reasons to dissolve the monasteries. Plus the crown was not financially secure and needed the money of the monasteries. Henry saw that it would be beneficial to him if the Pope’s power in England was weakened and the dissolution gave him the power to do so. The final way that Henry would justify the dissolution was to seize the land of the church and to give
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